Swimming was always my sport. I wanted to be good at track athletics but my results on a track were never as good as in a swimming pool. Oh, I was part of my high school team that won the Hawkes Bay Secondary School Cross Country Championship. But track success was always more elusive than swimming wins.

Typical of my track career was my final mile race before heading off to school in the United States. I was in the Seventh Form at Otorohanga High School and was determined to win the school mile championship and qualify to run in the Waikato Inter-Secondary Schools Championships. Instead of catching the bus to school I began running the six miles (10 kms) to school and six miles home every day. For six months I never missed a day and added two 10 mile (16 kms) runs on Saturday and Sunday for a total of 80 miles (132 kms) a week.

I was fit and confident I could beat David Bayley who normally won the school mile championship. However, instead of using my fitness I allowed the race to dawdle through three and a half laps and then got outsprinted by Bayley in the home straight. There would be no Waikato Inter-Secondary Schools Championship for me. But then a surprise. I had entered several fill-in events including the senior discus. Wonder of wonders I spun around the circle, like I had seen on TV, and hey presto, I was the school discus champion and on my way to Rotorua for the provincial championship.

I never expected my discus career would challenge East German World Record holder, Jurgen Schult. And so it transpired. My school throw had been a one-off. The Rotorua throw was meters shorter and at the bottom of the field.  I was last. My track and field career was about to end on a very sad note. I wandered around the Rotorua field feeling very sorry for myself and then noticed that meet officials were taking entries, at the meet, for the pole vault. I entered the Waikato Secondary Schools Pole Vault Championship.

I had never competed in a pole vault event but I couldn’t do worse than the discus. Besides, it is not as though I had never pole vaulted. Frequently when I was out hunting I carried a Lancewood pole to vault over fences. It was easier and quicker than climbing. Vaulting was also a convenient and dry means of getting over small streams.

And just consider the advantages. The competition would fill in the day. Meet officials were providing sophisticated metal poles that looked a lot more useable than even my best Lancewood version. And the bar was set at the opening height. That didn’t look too daunting especially when I mentally compared its height with the international vaulting I’d seen on TV. This, I thought, should be fun.

The first round went well. I cleared the opening height on my first vault. Another competitor missed three attempts and was eliminated. Already I was guaranteed a finish better than the discus.  The bar was raised and again I cleared the height on my first attempt. Two competitors missed their three vaults and were eliminated. This was good. I was now guaranteed at least a sixth place finish.

The bar was raised three more times and each time I cleared the height on my first vault. The field was now down to two – a competitor from Hamilton Boys High School and me. A silver medal, at least, would be mine.

I was confident I could clear a few more heights. After-all the bar still wasn’t nearly as high as I’d seen the athletes vaulting on TV. I also knew I wasn’t going to win. The Hamilton competitor had a coach and, for some reason, was putting white powder on the pole. What was that for? The bar went up again and I cleared it on my first attempt. And then the Hamilton competitor missed. Wow I thought, “How did that happen?”

Normal programming was resumed on his second attempt. He cleared the height easily. The bar was raised and again I cleared it on my first attempt. The Hamilton competitor missed his first attempt and his second and his third. Wow, unbelievable, I’d won. I was the Waikato Inter-Secondary Schools Pole Vault Champion.

The officials asked if I’d like to try for some higher heights. Sure I said, after all the bar still did not look as high as I’d seen on TV. The officials went back to raising the bar. Then I was accosted by my High School PE teacher. He’d been told that I’d won the event and the last height I cleared was a Waikato Inter-Secondary School record.

The silly bugger told me about the record and instantly my approach changed. The bar was higher than I thought. I must have been wrong about the athletes on TV. I missed my next three attempts. I’ve never forgiven that teacher. I swear if he had kept his mouth shut I could have gone higher. Never mind I was the champion.

PS – I didn’t know Alison at the time but she had her own Waikato Inter-secondary Championship in 1963 competing for Fairfield College.  She won the Junior Girls 75 yards sprint. Years later when she was one of the best in the world at 1500 meters she still spoke fondly of the benefits of 75 yard sprinting; a lot easier, she said, than three and a three quarter laps. I told her she was lucky to know the guy who’d won a Waikato pole vault championship. Everyone knows how tough and good looking those pole vaulting guys are.